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By Maki Riddington

"Put nothing in your mouth unless it fits your individual plan. There are no overnight miracles vitamins. The miracle comes from matching your nutrient needs to your biochemistry and your training, then subjecting the mix to a daily dose of good, hard sweat." -- Dr Michael Colgean

While its not my intention to attack the dietary supplement industry, I do think it¹s necessary to raise some questions about supplements to help give you a proper perspective on their use.

It's routinely claimed that dietary supplements increase physical performance, recovery and/or fat free mass beyond what regular training can provide. In the last several years the dramatic results of supplement research studies have overshadowed the larger issue at hand--are the quantities of ergogenic aids used by bodybuilders and athletes, in general, needed to achieve excellence?

In my gym experience I've seen many people turn quickly to the use of supplements after they've somehow submitted to the notion that their progress has not been fast enough (this includes the use of Anabolic Steroids). Supplement companies have claimed that supplement ³A² or ³B² can help make up for genetic limitations, or aid in boosting performance above and beyond one¹s training plateau when, in fact, says Dr Mel Siff, "they rarely allow the body to adapt at it's own rate or persist enough in trying to find a program which best suits them individually at that time."

Most of the time people don't give much thought to buying into the latest fad or weight-loss schemes developed by companies who are waiting in the wings. Dr Michael Colgean has identified their strategy in terms of "marketing their product in shinier packages surrounded by pseudo-science touted by champions and sold with the rest of the Madison Avenue flimflam."

The truth is, the practical effectiveness of these supplements have been hidden from our view by the product manufacturers¹ sales technique. Scientific research is cited which proclaims the product¹s ability to produce a ergogenic effect. Unfortunately, most of the time, there is no scientific basis for the claims being made, or else the research has been manipulated to promote sales of the supplement. I have to hang my own head and admit that sometimes I've been guilty of buying into their sales ploys.

Our society today is so easily misled by the price of over-glammed commercials and/or testimonials by athletes who have proclaimed the wonders of supplement ³A² or ³B² or have endorsed certain ground-breaking machines that will shape, tone and strengthen you all in less than 10 minutes a day. Do people buy into this propaganda out of willful ignorance? Or is it the result of a twisted fetish that fuels them to become bigger, stronger, leaner and faster, while the truth of the matter is that their athlete models follow a strict and rigorous training program which is never mentioned.

What it all comes down to is, that even though some supplements have been proven to work for certain periods of time, most people have hardly begun to explore how far they can go without resorting to supplements. Who knows what they could have accomplished with experimentation or manipulation of certain variables such as nutrition which would deal with :

a) their specific personal needs,
b) adequate recovery periods and
c) individualized training programs.

Again, Dr Mel Siff, tells us "People need to spend more time experimenting with different training methods in attempt to know oneself very well and perfect a long term variable training program which suits you according to feedback that you learn and recognise from your own body and mind."

The phenomena which describes a belief causing real physical change is called a Placebo Effect. You might want to remember this when assessing supplement use. Is it mind-over-matter that you're paying good money for?

"Training is principally a act of faith. The athlete must believe in its efficacy; he must believe that through training he will become fitter and stronger; that by constant repetition of the same movements he will become more skillful and his muscles more relaxed.....He must be a fanatic for hard work and enthusiastic enough to enjoy it." --Franz Stampfl

Ask yourself these questions next time you see an ad or commercial that raves about the miraculous effect a particular supplement will have upon your training. Is it worth the cost? Is it safe? Or am I compromising my body, maybe not in the visible present, but in the years to come?